Section four of the ESA is one of the more controversial pieces of environmental legislation ever written. It stopped a major dam development (briefly) over the lowly snail darter, and caused that whole mess in the NW over the spotted owl.

The main focus of the ESA over the last decade had been habitat protection. It's a complicated issue, with a lot of smoke and mirrors going on on both sides, but the bottom line is that rollbacks like these are pro-development plain and simple, and with the exception of wastewater treatment facilities, most developments with corresponding loss of habitat are usually bad for fishing.

I will not jump to any conclusions on this one, but it will be interesting to see what gets rolled back next...